Rosendale's Hidden Gem
Shabbat Rusciolelli parks her car behind the small building at the end of Rosendale’s Main Street, walks up the rickety stairs and takes her key out to unlock the back door. Flicking on the lights, she walks inside to reveal racks full of clothing. Rusciolelli, 37, puts down her keys next to one of the three sewing machines inside the store and walks to the front to bring her clearance rack outside. She gives the rest of the store a quick look-over before heading to her desk to put on some music. Nettle and Violet is officially open for the day.
Nettle and Violet’s sale racks are always placed outside to catch people’s attention as they walk by. (Photo/Ally Turk)
Rusciolelli sits across from me in a plush white seat at the front of her store, her faded pink hair separated into two braids on the sides and a bun on the top. She’s rocking a purple cowl neck sweater over an orange top, mustard yellow jogger pants, and black jeweled boots. As we talk she watches the three young men in the store browse through her carefully curated collection. One of them walks out of the changing room in purple flared velvet pants and a silk paisley shirt. “Oh my God” Rusciolelli says. “Wow that is an amazing outfit. I think you should tuck it in, you’ve got to go for the full 70s.”
Rusciolelli watches the three boys in her store as they show her their outfits. “You guys look so freaking awesome. So rad,” she said to them. (Photo/Ally Turk)
Nettle and Violet, opened by Rusciolelli in 2018, reflects her near 2 decades of fashion experience. The store is stocked with clothing from every decade since the 1900s, ranging from things like jeans to designer dresses. Rusciolelli has been experimenting with fashion since the seventh grade. “That’s when I first experienced how dramatically fashion can change the way you move in the world, when you change how you wear and what you wear,” she said.
Rusciolelli runs Nettle and Violet by herself. She curates the clothes, opens the store, interacts with the customers, and deals with the books. Most of the time Rusciolelli enjoys doing what she loves, and says it’s hard to complain about any of it. “There are definitely aspects that are more along the lines of, well, this is work. It seems like I don’t prioritize those, which is not surprising,” she said laughing.
The curating process is one part of the business that’s familiar to Rusciolelli since she’s been handpicking clothing for people for 17 years. She doesn’t get excited for everything vintage; there’s a lot of vintage out there that she will pass up. She searches for timeless designs, bling and some flair. “I want to see everyone expressing themselves a little bit more wildly and joyfully,” she said. “So you'll see a lot of unusual silhouettes. I like things that you can't find just anywhere.”
Rosendale’s Main Street, littered with eccentric shops, interesting people and farm-to-table restaurants, is the perfect place for Nettle and Violet. The character of the shop fits right in with the small Hudson Valley town. “We’re a community that seems rare nowadays. You feel like you truly know and care about your neighbors,” Aleah Speller, Rosendale resident, said. “Experiencing Rosendale through the music, food, theatre and shops is one of the many joys of being a part of it.”
Where it All Began
Rusciolelli’s life wasn’t always immersed in fashion and art. Her story begins in 1984 in Portland, Oregon where she was born at home into a family that was part of The Christ Brotherhood, which she describes as a traveling Christian cult.
“It’s made with patchwork. Each of these pieces of fabric was hand woven and hand dyed. This is a storybook in a garment. Someone put energy and time into each of these fabrics. Then they had a life, were chopped up and someone else put it back together into this and so it’s just like … Just like a human. It has a life of it’s own.” —Shabbat Rusciolelli, owner of Nettle and Violet (Photo/Ally Turk)
Rusciolelli traveled with members of the community, sometimes including her parents, until she was five years old when the community disbanded. Throughout this portion of her life she often found herself sleeping outside and walking miles for food. At the age of five her family lived in Israel for about a year until moving to the States where her father worked as a cabinet maker and her mother worked at a local thrift store.
Rusciolelli lived a normal life in Minneapolis with her family until their final move to “the high desert middle of nowhere New Mexico,” according to Rusciolelli. Here she realized that fashion didn’t matter as much, and it was on the backburner for a few years. “Anything that I was moving toward fashion wise just fell apart because it's you, the sky and the earth. All of your shit that's external is almost useless. It's like, who are we dressing for? The fucking bighorn sheep?” she exclaimed.
You Don’t Choose Fashion, Fashion Chooses You
After going to college in New Mexico for music for a few years, Rusciolelli moved to New York City to be there for her sister who was struggling. “I originally showed up for her,” Rusciolelli said. “But it ended up giving me so much.”
“I love all of these crazy textiles. I hoard this stuff. I won’t sell these I’ll just stare at them,” Rusciolelli said. (Photo/Ally Turk)
Rusciolelli quickly became friends with musicians, and became known for her fashion taste. Soon she was dressing her friends for things like photoshoots, tours or press releases. “I would take them to thrift stores and I would dress them,” she said. “Different designers started to contact me saying ‘I'm looking for this particular kind of sweatpants,’ which I now know is reverse weave Champions sweatpants with a gusseted crotch.”
In 2005 Rusciolelli got pregnant with her twins, quit her job as a waitress, and started buying and selling clothes full time. Once Rusciolelli and her partner at the time saved enough money, they moved upstate to start their family. “So I had my kids and I was a mom and the whole time it's been this push back to like, keep fashion out of my life. It was like ‘stop collecting, you don't have room for this stuff, you don't have an outlet,’” she said.
“Fashion has just been that thing I’ve never been able to put down.”
Despite not having a shop and being a new mom at 24, Rusciolelli still found herself selling clothes to people, this time out of her home in New Paltz.
A Vision Comes to Life
After about 14 years of dressing people and selling clothes in any way she could, Rusciolelli was finally able to open her shop, named after her children. “Basically all this magical stuff happened around opening the store,” she said. She was able to find the space on Rosendale’s Main Street for the exact price she wanted, until she realized she didn’t have anything she needed to furnish a store.
Nettle and Violet is decorated with plants, metals and white shelving to give the store a crisp, clean look. (Photo/Ally Turk)
On a Sunday at 3 p.m. Rusciolelli googled the words “yard sale” and found one in Woodstock that had been going on since Friday. She went in with low expectations, realizing everything good should have been sold already. “But I went out to this yard sale and wow, if this lady did not have everything I needed. Like these chairs. These tables. That's a headboard I made my desk from. The light fixtures. I got this lamp,” she said as she pointed to different things in the store. “Everything was white and crispy and beautiful. I literally rented a truck and I freaking bought everything. And she gave me this vision which was just so amazing.”
After the universe dropped all of that into her lap, Rusciolelli lucked out yet again a couple of weeks later at an estate sale. Dennis Potus, one of the “patron saints of Nettle and Violet,” had a wardrobe full of clothing from Europe. Rusciolelli bought it all. “It was these two places that were just there,” she said. “It was just easy and that's how you know you're doing the right thing.”
Making Work Fun is Good For the Soul
Nettle and Violet wouldn’t be the hot spot it is if it weren’t for Rusciolelli’s enthusiasm to talk to and dress people. “I really love my interactions with people. I love seeing faces. I love watching them try things on,” she said.
Nettle and Violet was one of the first shops Alison Hoffman discovered when she moved to the area two years ago, and she’s been shopping there ever since. Hoffman says Rusciolelli helped make the transition here easier by making her feel less lonely. “She’s so interested in her customers and she’s so warm,” Hoffman said. “I find her selection fabulous.”
Rusciolelli says people have come in and asked her why she’s located in Rosendale because “it’s not where you make the big bucks.” But Rusciolelli isn’t in it to make an exorbitant amount of money. She loves teaching people who come in about sustainable fashion and vintage clothing. She loves that young people are coming in and buying things at a good price, wearing it for a while, and reselling it on websites like Depop to create more sustainability. “It's such a win win. And that's got to be the way,” she said. “For me, good business cannot be me getting one over on everyone.”
“This is an amazing gown. It’s a full circle skirt. The thing is sick, right?” Rusciolelli says to the customers who have gathered around the dress. “It weighs eight pounds. It’s like an 1800 dollar dress. It’s so rare and so exquisite that someone who deals in mid century couture would easily be able to sell it for 5, but I don’t have access to that kind of market.” (Photo/Ally Turk)
While Rusciolelli is navigating her way through being a first-time business owner she’s also trying to be a positive source in all of her customers’ lives. “Everything should be more freaking fun,” she exclaimed. “And so I want clothes that are fun. And clothes that introduce you to other versions of yourself.”
Rusciolelli’s story is one of hardship, passion, joy and chance. Her path may have been full of twists and turns, but her current resting place is exactly where she wants to be. “I went from someone who was begging on the streets and eating out of trash cans, to somebody who dresses artists and musicians. It's been hard but the joy of what I’m doing makes everything fine,” Rusciolelli said. “You know, I feel more than fine. I feel blessed right now. Like, so amazing.”